Names: Austin Hawks and Grant Cardon

Names: Austin Hawks and Grant Cardon

Address: Utah State University

4820 Old Main Hill

Logan, UT 84322-4820

E-mail:Austin –

Grant -

Poster Title:Salinity Inventory and Tolerance Screening in Utah Agriculture

This is a poster (4x3)

Abstract:

Though there is ample evidence of saline soil and water conditions in Utah, there is not sufficient understanding of the distribution, extent and severity of these conditions in the major watersheds of the state. Without such inventories, and spatial mapping, one cannot track the effects of drought on soil and water quality, nor predict the effect of long-term drought on salt-impacted water use, plant growth, water balance and economics in these watersheds. Additionally, traditional plant salt tolerance data, from which salinity effects on plant growth and performance are generally predicted, have been developed under very different soil, climate and salt chemistry conditions than are found in Utah. There is a significant need for developing new standards and trends for basic salt tolerance screening of the major landscape and crop plants under Utah’s semi-arid, gypsiferous and calcareous soil and water conditions. This information is critical to tying the data on the distribution of soil and water salinity, to regional water use, plant productivity and land use sustainability. Maps of surface- and ground water, and soil salinity within selected locations within the Bear River Basin, Utah, are being prepared from geo-located water and soil samples and remotely-sensed electrical conductivity data. The physical samples are analyzed for total dissolved solids (water) and electrical conductivity (water and soil extracts). Remote sensing data is obtained using a Geonics EM38 Electromagnetic Induction Probe coupled with a Trimble Ag-GPS system. Calibration of the remotely-sensed data is being conducted against the physical soil samples and then mapped using ARC-GIS software (ESRI, Redlands, CA). Plant salt tolerance work is being conducted in the USU Research Greenhouses under carefully controlled conditions. Crop seedlings and rootstocks of chosen species are established under non-saline conditions followed by exposure to preset levels of soil water salinity. Plant growth, yield and quality components (such as protein content, fruit grade, BRIX and others) will also be measured. Plant response curves will then be developed for each species.